Trillanes files plunder charge vs Gordon

SEN. Antonio Trillanes 4th on Wednesday filed a complaint for plunder against Sen. Richard Gordon and a former official of the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) in connection with the alleged anomalous disbursements by the PRC estimated at P193 million.

In his complaint filed before the Office of the Ombudsman, Trillanes accused Gordon and former PRC Secretary General Gwendolyn Pang of plunder, graft, malversation, breach of conduct, violation of the Constitution and of the procurement law.

“Ang amount involved dito, ang nadiskubre natin at ang naka-document dito ay P193 million. Ito ay ‘yung mga PDAF (Priority Development Assistance Fund) na in-allocate niya nung 2004 nung bagong halal siya bilang senador. In-allocate niya ito sa Red Cross na siya rin ang nagdi-disburse so malaking violation po iyan (The amount involved here, what we discovered and what is documented here is P193 million. These are the PDAF, which he allocated in 2004 when he was a newly elected senator. He allocated this to the Red Cross, which he was also responsible for disbursing so that would be a big violation),” Trillanes said in an interview.
He claimed that Gordon made decisions without consulting the PRC’s Board of Governors.

“Then there are several instances na may mga procurement sila na walang koneksyon sa mandato ng Red Cross, kundi ito ay may koneksyon sa kampanya ni Sen. Gordon noong 2010…Tapos meron ding mga several instances na nag-procure sila na walang public bidding (Then there are several instances where they had procurements which have no connection with the mandate of the Red Cross, but has a connection with the campaign of Sen. Gordon in 2010…There were also several instances where they procured without public bidding),” Trillanes claimed.